Mountain biking nationals: Maharashtra dethrone Karnataka to emerge champs

Pune, Nov 1 Hosts Maharashtra proved their worth at home by winning the general championship of the 18th MTB (Mountain Terrain Bike) National Championship. In the final analysis, Maharashtra topped with 82 points to dethrone Karnataka (55 points) and regain the crown that they had last won in 2015.

Maharashtra cyclists won six gold medals out of the 11 at stake on the third day of the championship organised by the Cycling Association of Maharashtra under the aegis of Cycling Federation of India. As a result of this gold rush on Sunday, Maharashtra ended the championship with nine gold, eight silver, and five bronze medals. The only challenge that Maharashtra faced on the final day of the competition was from Karnataka who bagged four gold, while Himachal Pradesh won one gold.

The high-point of the Maharashtra domination on the last day was by the performance of women cyclists in the Elite Women Cross Country Olympic (30 km; 6 laps) race and the Sub Junior Cross Country Olympic (15 km; 3 laps) race respectively.

In the Elite Women Cross Country Olympic event, Pranita Soman topped with 1 hour 29 minutes 26.944 seconds, followed by teammates Rutika Gaikwad 1:32:10.862s and Priyanka Karande 1:38:43.014s.

In the Sub-junior Girls event, it was Siddhi Shirke who finished first in 48 minutes 13.805s, while her teammates Vaishnavi Patil (53:28.359s) and Kenis D'Mello (53:43.131s) took the silver and bronze respectively.

Maharashtra overall topped in two categories the Elite Women (22 points) and Sub Junior (34 points) and finished runners-up in the Junior category (16 points). Meanwhile, Charithgowda led the Karnataka charge, winning the Junior Men Cross Country event.

The Best Cyclist (Female) Award was claimed by Pranita Soman of Maharashtra. Pranita, who had won the Best Cyclist award in the last edition organised by Karnataka, thus made it two-in-a-row. She finished the Pune edition with two individual gold medals and one in the Mixed Team event.

Karnataka's Junior cyclist Charithgowda bagged the Best Cyclist (Male) Award by winning two individual Golds and one in Mixed Team event.

PRIZES:

General Championship: 1-Maharashtra: 82 points, 2-Karnataka: 55 points

Elite Men: 1-Himachal Pradesh (7 points); 2-Manipur (6 pts)

Elite Women: 1- Maharashtra (22 points); 2-Karnataka (4 points)

Junior: 1-Karnataka (31 pts); 2-Maharashtra (16 pts)

Sub Junior: 1-Maharashtra (34); 2-Karnataka (17 pts)

Best Cyclist Male: Charithgowda (Karnataka; 2 Gold Individual, 1 Gold Team)

Best Cyclist Female: Pranita Soman (Maharashtra; 2 Gold Individual, 1 Gold Team)

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